I had considered getting an autograph from Carrie Fisher due to the fact she had been on an episode of Smallville, but due to that other thing she did (you know what I’m talking about…) the line to see her was two hours long, so I decided to pass.

After getting the autographs I wanted I looked around the vendor area and bought a few t-shirts. Probably don’t need more t-shirts but what can I say? I’m a sucker for the Flash.

After that we went to the Detroit Science Center to see Star Trek: The Exhibition. It was very fun and interesting. Lots of props and costumes and some ship models. Sadly, they didn’t allow photography in the exhibit due to an agreement with a professional photography service. But they did have replica sets of the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (“No bloody A, B, C, D OR E” to paraphrase Mr. Scott), the transporter room of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D, someone’s quarters from The Next Generation (the website says it’s Picard’s quarters, but most of the props in it were stuff that would have been in Riker’s quarters, so I’m not sure) and a life-size mock up of the Guardian of Forever. All of those, other than the quarters, you were able to have your picture taken on.

I do want to go back again before the exhibit moves on in September. I definitely want to ride the full motion simulator ride, and wouldn’t mind doing the audio tour and hearing what it has to say about the items.

While photos weren’t allowed in the Star Trek portion they were allowed in the rest of the museum and I got a few pictures before we had to leave.

Did an awesome tour today! We took a train from ColÃ³n, Panama to the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. The canal itself was interesting and our guide was amazing! But I think my favorite part of the experience was the train ride.

Some interesting stuff I learned was that the Haiti scenes from the new Bond movie Quantum of Solace were actually shot in ColÃ³n. Also that the city has no traffic lights whatsoever, everything is done via courtesy. Unfortunately that is something the residents don’t have.

One other item of note, the public schools in Panama are free, even the public university. Not just to Panamanians either, it’s free for anyone, you just have to be able to speak Spanish.

Well, I upgraded to WordPress 2.5 over the weekend and after playing with it for a couple of days here are my initial thoughts.

I really like the new link/blogroll functionality, much improved over previous versions.

I like the concept of tags, however I don’t care for the tag cloud widget which is as far as I can tell the only way to give them a function out of the box. I think they should make it possible to allow the search widget to search through the tags as well as the actual words in a post or page.

Speaking of tags, I also think there should be someway to tag photos in the new gallery/media library. I know you can add descriptions but sometimes tagging the photo is easier and/or less cluttering on the page. This would also be another good reason to allow the search widget to search the tags as well.

And last of all, the new gallery function. This is by far the feature I was most looking forward to in 2.5. I do have another gallery site that is based on WordPress, but I was looking forward to moving the albums there so that I would only have to use one log in and everything would be better integrated. I was even more excited after seeing Photo Matt’s galleries using the new software. However, out of the box the gallery function doesn’t seem to work as nice as Matt has it. The options for the gallery and media library need to be more fleshed out in my opinion.

Those aren’t the only new changes of course, just the ones that caught my attention. And I also know that the issues I mentioned above could be fixed by either manually tweaking the code and/or with plugins, but if the issues aren’t brought up how will people who know how to do that know people are interested?

Overall I really do like this latest version of WordPress, I just think a few tweaks would make it even better.

Yay! The day is here. I’ll be leaving for the airport in a couple hours and then after a layover in Chicago we’ll be on my way to Italy. We’re leaving Saturday afternoon but won’t arrive until Sunday morning. We’ll also be arriving before we can board the cruise ship so we’ll be doing some sightseeing when we get there to kill some time. I plan on checking in while on vacation as well, assuming this ship is like the last one and has internet access. I hope so, because not checking my mail for two weeks would mean needing another vacation when I got back to go through and delete spam, both in my inbox and from the comments. Thank goodness for comment moderation

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

Well, I’m back from California, and I probably should have done posts while I was there instead of waiting because I’ve probably forgotten stuff now, but I’ll do my best to remember what I can.

First day in California I met up with some of the people who were attending the I-Manicon and had dinner at the Sizzler. Or tried to at least, food never came, not a good time. Then we started getting the goody bags ready for the con the next day.

The day of the actual I-Manicon was good. We played games, watched some fan made music videos based on the show as well as an episode of The Invisible Man. Sadly, none of the cast made it in person that day but Mike McCafferty did talk to us from Michigan via speaker phone.

On Sunday mom and I braved Los Angeles public transportation to go to Burbank to attend the live show of The Radio Adventures of Doctor Floyd. Had a great time at the show, the cast was awesome. And I got “volunteered” form the audience to be in the show, which if you’re interested you can download here.

When we got back to the hotel Sunday night the group ordered pizza and then later in the evening Mike McCafferty stopped by to visit with us for a bit on his way home from the airport.

Monday the group did some sightseeing and then went to an Italian restaurant called Buca de Beppo’s. we ate in the Pope room which not only had pictures of Pope’s all over but also had a bust of the Pope on a lazy susan that was on the table. The lazy susan was to pass the food since everything was served family style, which meant when you passed stuff the Pope would be looking at different people. Paul Ben Victor also met us there along with a couple of his friends to hang out with us for a bit.

Tuesday we drove from Los Angeles to San Diego, trip wasn’t too bad. We didn’t really run into any major traffic and we got to use the carpool lane.

Wednesday we took a ferry to Coronado island to do some “sight seeing” although that actually translated more to shopping.

Wednesday night we headed to preview night for the Comic Con. Saw some interesting stuff and got quite a few pictures of some of the more interesting booths and displays.

Thursday was the actual official first day of the con. There weren’t any panels I was really interested in until the afternoon so I spent some time wandering the dealer room, including picking up a raffle ticket for Fin Fang Foom from the WizKids booth, which ended up being a winner, yay!

The first panel I went to that day was a DC panel focusing on the Countdown event that’s currently going on. They revealed some interesting things, but for the most part they were cryptic, as were a lot of other panels. The coolest thing about this panel was afterwards I was able to get Paul Dini’s autograph as well as a picture with him.

Later I went to the Spotlight on Scott Kurtz panel, who is the creator of the web comic PVP. Most of the stuff they talked about was about the new web based animated series based on the comic strip. It was interesting, but I personally prefer the comic strip.

The last panel I went to on Thursday was a retrospective on Star Trek, looking back over the past 40 years and somewhat to the future. No one from the actual show was there, but was some interesting stuff.

Friday the first panel I wanted to see was earlier, it was on adapting comics to the screen. Nothing too earth-shattering, although did get to see Stan Lee. Also found out that there’s plans for a live action Teen Titans movie.

After that panel I met up with a friend I know from City of Heroes and walked around the dealer floor with them for a while and chatted for a few hours. Also met and chatted to Roger Chang for a bit, very nice guy.

The next thing I did was go to the Jim Henson panel, they were promoting a couple new projects, the first one didn’t interest me much but their other project The Skrumps looked like it could be interesting.

The last panel of the day was the DC Nation, which had a few cool reveals, but nothing offhand that I can really recall.

Saturday was really eventful. First thing was a panel on the MarvelUltimate Universe. Some interesting things coming from there, and I have to say Marvel reveals slightly more in their panels then DC does.

Next panel that day was one of my faves, Cartoon Voices 1 (other fave was Cartoon Voices 2). Panel had various voice actors, including Joe Alaskey who voices the Looney Tunes now, Will Ryan who does voices for Disney as well as Adventures in Odyssey, Kathy Garver who voices Angelica Jones/Firestar on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Rob Paulsen who was the voice of Pinky on Pinky and the Brain among other voices as well as a few others. There were some questions and answers but the best part was when the moderator had them perform an extremely edited down version of Orson Welles’War of the Worlds. Each of them played multiple parts, and in one scene three characters were arguing, and were all played by the same actor. Also during the performance when the moderator said ‘Switch’ whoever had the last line had to redo it in a different voice. And afterwards Rob Paulsen sang “Yakko’s World” from memory (Video is from 2006, didn’t find one from this con). I was also able to get a photograph with Will Ryan and Joe Alaskey.

Next was another DC panel and then a Marvel panel on stuff happening with Spider-Man. The one thing I remember from the DC panel was they had two people on stage dressed up, one as Mary Marvel in her new black outfit and the other as Knockout. At one point someone dressed as Spider-Man got to the microphone to ask a question and Knockout ran over and “beat him up”. And speaking of Spidey… there’s some interesting stuff happening with the line up of the Spider-Man creative team. I’m definitely interested to see what they do to/with the webhead.

Nice thing about Saturday was all those panels were in the same room so I was able to get there find a great seat and just park there all day. I was also going to go to the Smallville panel but a few things changed my mind, one was the extremely loooong line to get into the room, it stretched down and around 3 or 4 hallways. Also I thought about it and decided I didn’t want to be spoiled on what was coming up next season. And lastly, I was busy running back to hotel room and then back to convention to get to the FedEx inside the con to mail something back home before they closed. That in itself was a harrowing adventure, one I hope never to have to repeat.

Sunday was the last day of the con, and while I had fun I was kind of glad too since I was getting conned out. First panel was another DC panel. Honestly I wish I had written this up sooner so I could remember more, but now most of their panels kind of blend together.

I then went to the other Cartoon Voices 2 panel, which was pretty much the same as Cartoon Voices 1 (including the War of the World’s performance), but with different actors. This one had among others, Michael Bell who did voices on the original Transformers, Gregg Berger who also did voices on Transformers, including Grimlock, and Maurice La Marche who was the Brain in Pinky and the Brain.

I then wandered around the dealer room one last time as well as said hello to Roger Chang one last time. I thought about going to a couple other panels, but since none of them were things I absolutely had to see, and I was getting uncomfortable with the sheer number of people, as well as being conned out, I left the con early and headed back to the hotel.

I definitely had a great time and I’m glad I went, but not sure yet if I want to plan on going next year. Something to think about.

Everyone was friendly, especially Robin Curtis, Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo. I also bought Robert Picardo’s two cds that I didn’t already have. I could have bought them earlier off of his website but I was wanting to wait until he came to a convention so I could get them autographed as well.

Later in the afternoon went to a question and answer panel with Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips. They’re quite hilarious and were joking with each other through pretty much the entire panel, oh and they answered questions too.

After the convention we stayed and watched an original play called Housecall that was written and performed by Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo which reprised their roles from Star Trek: Voyager. Quite humorous, especially the ad libbed parts, if you ever get a chance to see these two at the same con and they’re doing the performance I highly recommend seeing it, well worth the $15

Some of you who talk to me on a regular basis may know that I’ve never had a page on Myspace. I’ve been asked before by some of my friends who are on there to make one but my response was always the same; “Why do that when I’m paying for my own domain?”

So some of you may be wondering why I jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon. The way I see it Twitter is a completely different animal. You post on both of them, but Myspace is more of a standard blog, whereas Twitter is more for quick posts and updates. I’ll post things on Twitter that I doubt I would have ever posted here on the main blog.

Also, unlike Myspace I can integrate Twitter onto my own site, so it’s not like I have to send people all over the web to see everything I’m posting.

Finally upgraded to version 7.1.1.5 of iTunes the other day, and on a whim I decided to try something that before didn’t work. I get a few video podcasts that I like to keep, but unlike the audio podcasts I couldn’t find a way to move them from the podcast folder to the movie folder. With the audio podcasts I just had to right click on them and convert to MP3, but with most of the video podcasts when I right clicked on them and did convert for iPod (which would move it to the movie folder) an error popped up saying the video was already in the correct format. This mainly happened with MP4 files, which the majority of the video podcasts I get are in.

Now however after downloading this update iTunes is converting the MP4′s. There are still a couple videos it is saying is already in the correct format, but far fewer now.

Well, I just re-added a guest book to the site. Some of you may remember that I had one before, but I finally found a way to integrate it better with the entire site. So please feel free to go and sign the guest book and let me know that I have people who visit.

Just got a new toy for my car this past weekend. The JVC KD-APD38, which is a car stereo. The nice thing about this one (and the entire reason for my replacing the radio i the first place) is the fact I can plug my iPod directly into the stereo and listen to it through the car’s speakers. I can also control the iPod from the radio when it’s plugged in and it will charge as well.

I’m still getting used to where some of the controls are but overall I’m pleased with my purchase.

Ooooh… WizKids just announced the colossal HeroClix figure for this year. The one I was hoping for.. Scalier than Galactus, Greener than The Spectre.. Yes.. It’s He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains and Whose Back Scrapes the Sun, THE MOST FEARFUL MENACE OF THEM ALL! Fin! Fang! Foom!

Thanks to Veronica for this info. A new social networking site is in the wild. The difference? This one is genealogy based. It’s called Geni and it’s pretty much a social family tree, so that you’re entire family can add to it and update it. Also apparently if you add someone who’s already a member it will merge the trees.

And for those worried about your info being out there it looks like only people in a tree can see that tree, so only people you’re related to in someway can see you.

Just found this cool site that every other Friday puts up about three free Christian songs. You can find it here. Today they have songs from Michael W. Smith, Michael Olson and Ayiesha Woods. If you want the free songs though you have to hurry, they only stay up for 24 hours.

Some friends of mine have come upon hard times and have set up a website to try and help keep afloat. They’re not asking for handouts, they’re willing to offer advice/opinions in exchange for donations.